OpenAI, the developer of the groundbreaking ChatGPT chatbot, is preparing to overhaul its corporate structure and become a for-profit business.
The startup’s chief executive, Sam Altman, acknowledged on Thursday that it was “not a normal company” after another surprising development at OpenAI this week when its its chief technology officer, Mira Murati, resigned. Her departure was quickly followed by the announcement that two other executives had quit.
The company is synonymous with an artificial intelligence boom triggered by the emergence, in 2022, of OpenAI’s signature product, a chatbot that stunned users with its ability to craft convincing, human-like responses to an array of prompts.
Altman, in turn, has become the poster child for a technology that is advancing rapidly and is being developed by the world’s largest tech companies, including Microsoft – OpenAI’s biggest backer – Google, the Facebook owner Meta and Amazon.
Here, we look at some of the issues arising from the changes at OpenAI.